New SRI International Spin-off, Artificial Muscle Inc., Secures Series A Funding from Leading VC Firms.Business Editors MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2004 AMI to Commercialize Innovative "Artificial Muscle" Technology into Smart Materials that Expand and Contract Similar to Human Muscles SRI International (company) SRI International - One of the world's largest contract research firms. Founded in 1946 in conjuction with Stanford University as the Stanford Research Institute, they later became fully independent and were incorporated as a non-profit organisation under U.S. , a leading independent research and development organization, today announced the formation of Artificial Muscle Incorporated (AMI), the latest in a series of spin-off companies. The company will develop and market components made of electroactive polymer "artificial muscle," a smart material developed and patented by researchers at SRI International. AMI has secured $2.5 million in Series A financing from Vanguard Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and NGEN NGEN Next Generation NGEN Next Generation Enterprise Network (US Navy Intranet Development Program) Partners. An additional $5 million in Series A funding will follow later this year upon completion of certain milestones. SRI has granted AMI a broad license for application of the artificial muscle technology, which can be used as a lightweight, highly efficient alternative to small motors, actuators, pumps, solenoids, speakers, sensors, and generators used in virtually any product from audio speakers to air conditioners to automobiles. "Although AMI is a new company, it has been built around a core technology developed over a 12-year period by SRI International - one of the world's premiere R&D organizations," said Dan Eilers, general partner of Vanguard Ventures and lead AMI investor. "Artificial muscle can be applied to a wide range of markets, applications and products with a market potential that today exceeds $4 billion annually." "AMI is another excellent example of SRI's approach to bringing high-value innovations to the commercial marketplace," said Dr. Norman Winarsky, SRI International's vice president of ventures and strategic programs. "This is breakthrough technology that can provide the foundation for equally breakthrough applications." The thin, flexible material, called artificial muscle because it behaves much like a human muscle, expands when exposed to an electric current and contracts when the electricity is removed, thereby converting electrical potential energy into mechanical motion. It offers significant advantages over typical electromagnetic-based technologies because it is much lighter, smaller, quieter and cheaper, and offers more controllable and flexible configurations. "Artificial muscle has the potential to fundamentally shift the way many types of industrial, medical, consumer, automotive, and aerospace products are powered and operated," said Alex Beavers, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Artificial Muscle Inc. "We already have an impressive list of current and potential customers that will work with us to bring artificial muscle into mainstream use." Mr. Beavers, formerly CEO of Thomson Industries, also led the manufacturing and supply chain management consulting Noun 1. management consulting - a service industry that provides advice to those in charge of running a business service industry - an industry that provides services rather than tangible objects practice for the Americas at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and served as president of Applicon, one of the original CAD/CAM CAD/CAM in full computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing. Integration of design and manufacturing into a system under direct control of digital computers. systems companies, president of Schlumberger Automation Systems Asia, and general manager of the robotics and vision systems business of General Electric. In addition to Mr. Beavers, members of AMI's seasoned Board of Directors, all recognized for their success in bringing new technologies to market, include Dan Eilers of Vanguard Ventures, Patrick Ennis of ARCH Venture Partners, Steven Parry of NGEN Partners and Mike Gullard of SRI International. More information about artificial muscle, which was featured on the cover of the October 2003 issue of Scientific American Scientific American U.S. monthly magazine interpreting scientific developments to lay readers. It was founded in 1845 as a newspaper describing new inventions. By 1853 its circulation had reached 30,000 and it was reporting on various sciences, such as astronomy and , is available online at www.artificialmuscle.com. About SRI International Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com) is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute Stanford Research Institute - Former name of SRI International. in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for more than 55 years. The nonprofit research institute performs contract research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and nonprofit foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies. SRI's most recent spin-offs include PacketHop, a wireless communications wireless communications System using radio-frequency, infrared, microwave, or other types of electromagnetic or acoustic waves in place of wires, cables, or fibre optics to transmit signals or data. company launched in November 2003, and Artificial Muscle Inc., funded in March 2004. About Artificial Muscle Incorporated Artificial Muscle Inc. (AMI) develops and markets components made of artificial muscle, a smart material that can be used for a variety of sensing, actuating and electric power generation applications. Artificial muscle, developed at leading research institute SRI International, serves as a lightweight, highly efficient alternative to small motors, generators, sensors, and speakers used in products ranging from automobiles to audio speakers. AMI is serving a market that currently measures $4 billion in size with artificial muscle-based components for industrial, medical, consumer, automotive, and aerospace applications. Founded in March 2004 and based in Silicon Valley, AMI is funded by premier venture firms Vanguard Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and NGEN Partners. More information on AMI can be found at www.artificialmuscle.com. About Vanguard Ventures Vanguard Ventures (www.vanguardventures.com) is a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early-stage high-technology investments, with offices in Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. and Houston. The five partners have extensive and successful backgrounds as technologists, operating managers, entrepreneur-founders and venture capital investors. Since 1981, Vanguard has funded 117 startups; more than 30 of these have already become major corporate successes and many others in this Vanguard portfolio are destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. for success. In aggregate, these companies created over $70 billion in market value and returned approximately $1 billion to investors. About ARCH Venture Partners ARCH Venture Partners (www.archventure.com) has been investing in seed and early-stage technology companies for more than 18 years and has special expertise in building technology companies with leading scientists and researchers from universities and national laboratories. ARCH has more than $1 billion under management through six venture funds and operates nationally with offices in Seattle, Austin, Chicago, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Albuquerque. About NGEN Partners LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control NGEN Partners (www.ngenpartners.com) is a venture capital fund dedicated to identifying and nurturing emerging companies that address large market opportunities in the materials fields. Based in Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is a city in California, United States. It is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 92,325. , the fund is engineered so as to support portfolio companies in accelerating product development progress. Investors in the fund, the fund's limited partners, include Air Products and Chemicals, BASF BASF Bar Association of San Francisco (since 1872; San Francisco, California) BASF Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (German chemical products company) BASF Builders Association of South Florida , Bayer, BHP Billiton, Boeing, DSM 1. DSM - Data Structure Manager. An object-oriented language by J.E. Rumbaugh and M.E. Loomis of GE, similar to C++. It is used in implementation of CAD/CAE software. DSM is written in DSM and C and produces C as output. , Dupont, Henkel, Schott Glas, CDP CDP (cytidine diphosphate): see cytosine. (1) (Certificate in Data Processing) An earlier award for the successful completion of an examination in hardware, software, systems analysis, programming, management and accounting, Capital - Technology Ventures and Unilever. |
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